Under the Redwoods eBook

But strangely enough they were greeted by nothing
else! Sparrell and the youngest Miss Piper were
gone; and when they at last reached the highroad,
they were astounded to hear from a passing teamster
that no one in the settlement knew anything of the
disaster!

This was the last drop in their cup of bitterness!
They who had expected that the settlement was waiting
breathlessly for their rescue, who anticipated that
they would be welcomed as heroes, were obliged to
meet the ill-concealed amusement of passengers and
friends at their dishevelled and bedraggled appearance,
which suggested only the blundering mishaps of an
ordinary summer outing! “Boatin’ in
the reservoir, and fell in?” “Playing
at canal-boat in the Ditch?” were some of the
cheerful hypotheses. The fleeting sense of gratitude
they had felt for their deliverers was dissipated
by the time they had reached their homes, and their
rancor increased by the information that when the
earthquake occurred Mr. Tom Sparrell and Miss Delaware
were enjoying a “pasear” in the forest—­he
having a half-holiday by virtue of the festival—­and
that the earthquake had revived his fears of a catastrophe.
The two had procured axes in the woodman’s hut
and did what they thought was necessary to relieve
the situation of the picnickers. But the very
modesty of this account of their own performance had
the effect of belittling the catastrophe itself, and
the picnickers’ report of their exceeding peril
was received with incredulous laughter.

For the first time in the history of Red Gulch there
was a serious division between the Piper family, supported
by the Contingent, and the rest of the settlement.
Tom Sparrell’s warning was remembered by the
latter, and the ingratitude of the picnickers to their
rescuers commented upon; the actual calamity to the
reservoir was more or less attributed to the imprudent
and reckless contiguity of the revelers on that day,
and there were not wanting those who referred the accident
itself to the machinations of the scheming Ditch Director
Piper!

It was said that there was a stormy scene in the Piper
household that evening. The judge had demanded
that Delaware should break off her acquaintance with
Sparrell, and she had refused; the judge had demanded
of Sparrell’s employer that he should discharge
him, and had been met with the astounding information
that Sparrell was already a silent partner in the
concern. At this revelation Judge Piper was alarmed;
while he might object to a clerk who could not support
a wife, as a consistent democrat he could not oppose
a fairly prosperous tradesman. A final appeal
was made to Delaware; she was implored to consider
the situation of her sisters, who had all made more
ambitious marriages or were about to make them.
Why should she now degrade the family by marrying
a country storekeeper?

It is said that here the youngest Miss Piper made
a memorable reply, and a revelation the truth of which
was never gainsaid:—­